I'll Meet You in Heaven
by Auspicious Autumn
Summary: Long before Earnest's plan to get dirty pictures of Mandy, he was doing that to manipulate Beatrice. Bucky doesn't know what his leader is up to, but he is determined to make his best friend happy again.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Bullworth

**Chapter 1**

Beatrice sat at a table on the upper floor of the library working on her chemistry homework. Even though it was the first day of school, she wanted to be ahead on her studies. Just the thought of the admissions requirements for medical school gave her body a jolt of anxiety.

Finishing the last of the work assigned that dealt with the basics of the periodic table, she checked over her answers.

"Marvelous work, my dear."

Beatrice jumped when she felt a hand grip her shoulder. She turned around to see it was Earnest, the leader of the nerd clique. Although he never tried to pursue a relationship with her, he and some of the other male members would sometimes act in a way that set her on edge. She tried to calm down and go back to her work, but she was couldn't help but tense up and feel terrified at the thought of being alone with the nerd.

He never did anything to harm her, but that didn't stop her from feeling afraid. She wondered if other girls were treated this way. Sure, boys would fight for Lola or would do anything to please Pinky if she asked, but were they ever afraid of the boys in their cliques like she was of hers? She didn't really have any female friends so she didn't feel comfortable asking the girls whom she was not close to. That was actually one of the reasons why she tried out for the cheerleading squad.

Earnest taking his hand off her shoulder snapped her attention back to reality. He sat down next to her and pushed her homework aside. "So intelligent," he whispered as he moved his hand over her own. "Not bad looking either—in the right circumstance." Beatrice tried to pull away but Earnest gripped her hand tightly. "Now, now. No need to be like this. I'm just trying to give you a compliment, shouldn't you be grateful? It's not like you get interest from anyone else."

Beatrice tried to get her hand away from him. "Earnest, you're hurting me." He shook his head in an amused fashion. "Oh Beatrice, you're so frail—even for a girl. Don't worry, I'll help you toughen up."

Earnest finally let go of her hand and stood up. "Well, I must go now, but I promise we will have a nice chat tonight." With that he took his disappeared past the book shelves and down the stairs. Beatrice was shaken and tears were starting to fall.

In public, the head nerd treated her like a valued colleague. But when they were away from ears that were tuned to pick up gossip, he treated her like some kind of servant who ought to be grateful he gave her the time of day. However, today was different. Today he outright came onto her and said such degrading things she had to wonder what was behind that behavior. Maybe he would give her an explanation tonight.

She heard someone familiar humming so she tried to calm herself down as they came up the stairs Earnest had only recently vacated. She pretended to be absorbed in her finished chemistry homework as they sat down in front of her.

"Hi, pally."

Beatrice felt a smile tugging at her lips and she looked up to see Bucky sitting across from her. Bucky was her best friend and the only person whom she felt completely comfortable with. He was one of the few guys who didn't make lewd comments and he was always there for her.

"Hi, Bucky."

He frowned and leaned close to her looking at her face intently. "Were you crying earlier?"

Beatrice shook her head vehemently, but Bucky was not convinced. "Was it that Mandy girl again? Why I oughta give her a piece of my mind."

"Bucky, you're going to need every bit of your brain for English class this afternoon, so I don't recommend giving any of it to her."

He snorted. "But I'm already bad at that class, so what's the problem with having a little less thinking power for it? Besides, your welfare is always a higher priority to me than my grades."

Beatrice allowed herself to smile, she was grateful she had such a good friend. "As much as I appreciate your concern, it had nothing to do with her."

"So something did happen that made you cry."

Beatrice sighed. "Bucky, please, just give it a rest. I'm fine, really. I can handle it by myself."

Bucky looked as though he wanted to argue with her but the bell for afternoon classes chimed before he could do so. They went off to English trying to act normal but it still bothered Bucky that something had made Beatrice cry. He wanted to press on but he knew that she would tell him when she felt comfortable, she always did.

After classes were over, Bucky and Beatrice made their way back to the library to hang out with the other Nerds. Beatrice was proud of Bucky for not having English homework because he had managed to pass that day's assignment. But as they entered the doors of the library and Beatrice's eyes met Earnest's, her good mood suddenly vanished.

"Come sit with us," Earnest called patting the seat next to him. Also at the table were Thad and Algernon. "So tell us how your first day of school went." Bucky launched into the story about how he passed English but Earnest was not paying attention to him—neither were Thad and Algie. Instead they were eyeing Beatrice with interest.

She wracked her brain trying to think of what she had done recently that would cause Earnest and the others to treat her differently, but in the end she came up with nothing. She wasn't dressing differently than usual. Even though it was a well-known fact that Algie liked blondes, he never expressed interest in her. Thad barely even noticed she existed. So what was going on?

Earnest clapped his hands together. "How exciting, I'm very pleased to hear that, Bucky. But it is approaching curfew, so we should get going to our dorms."

Everyone agreed and walked out into the night with their books. They tried to stay together in case any jocks or bullies tried to harass them but they got to the front of the school with no trouble.

"I'm going to walk Beatrice to her dorm, so why don't you guys head on over to our dorm?" Earnest suggested, even though his tone made no room for suggestion.

Bucky saw that Beatrice was not pleased with this suggestion, but he was already being led away before he could protest. Earnest tugged Beatrice away from the prying eyes of the prefects and other students around the side of her dorm where students typically went to make out.

Beatrice wrenched her hand out of his grip and turned to hurry off but he grabbed her again and spun her around. She stumbled and he used his other hand to keep her down. "Earnest! What are you doing!?"

"I hate to treat you this way, but you leave me no choice. Now listen up, a few of the guys and I have been talking and we are quite frustrated with the lack of female attention. We have needs, and unlike other clique leaders, I have not forced you into a relationship with me."

Beatrice looked up at him fearfully, wondering if she could scream loud enough to attract the attention of a wandering prefect.

"I have no interest in pursuing it farther than the fulfillment of carnal desires, so don't even think this will turn into some kind of fairytale romance."

Beatrice finally found her voice. "You can't do this! This is wrong!"

Earnest smiled, but there was no kindness to it. "Actually, yes I can. You see," he pulled some photos out of the back of his pocket and put them in front of her. "If these were to somehow get out, you would never see medical school. Wouldn't that just be tragic?"

Beatrice shook as she realized the pictures were of her in the shower. "H-how?!"

Earnest laughed. "Let's just say Thad is really good with a camera. And don't even bother tearing these up, we have copies."

Beatrice looked up at him, hoping this was some kind of joke, but saw no mercy in the nerd leader's eyes. "Earnest, please…"

He ran a hand through her hair. "Don't worry, you'll come to like it. It's either this or give up on your dream of getting into medical school."

Earnest let Beatrice go and she crumbled on the ground. "Goodnight, Beatrice." With that, he left her to deal with the fear of what was to come over the course of the year.

**AN: **Sorry for it being so dark and out of character, but that Paparazzi mission never really settled well with me and I couldn't help but wonder if they had done something like that before.


	2. Chapter 2: That Bitch

**Chapter 2**

A week had gone by since the night Earnest had blackmailed Beatrice. She was careful not to go anywhere alone with any of the nerd boys. There had been numerous attempts by Earnest, Thad, and Algie to get her alone, but she knew everyone's schedules enough to work around the times when they would all be together in public.

The only time the boys would see her would be in class or to grab lunch from the cafeteria before sprinting off. She no longer hung around the library and only went when she had to check out books. Now she spent most of her time in her dorm room. Yes, it was noisy and people constantly bothered her, but at least she was around other girls who would never allow a nerd boy come in.

Meanwhile, Bucky was going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with his best friend. Was it something he said? Maybe she found out about his crush on her and she was too creeped out to be anywhere near him. He wanted to talk to the other nerds and get their input, but he knew they were just as hopeless at understanding girls as he was.

Besides, Earnest and the other kept disappearing on him recently. He had a feeling they were doing something in the observatory, but if they weren't going to invite him then it probably wasn't any of his business.

The nerd clique was made up of guys who were considered to be outcasts by their more popular peers. But when you're in a group of outcasts and they don't even want to hang out with you, it had to make a guy wonder what was wrong with him.

He watched Beatrice in class and whenever he saw her outside of it. Something was bothering her and he knew if he didn't make an effort to talk to her, it would keep on going. He spent the rest of the week trying to figure out what to do.

The lack of human interaction was taking more of a toll on Beatrice than she had expected. She was sad she could no longer confide in Bucky, but she just couldn't take the chance. One day she overheard Lola talking about getting a new diary, so Beatrice decided to give it a try.

It was odd to write without an audience, without expecting someone else to see and judge what she had to say. After a few days of writing, she broke and wrote about every problem, every fear, and every anxiety that hit her.

In a way it was better than human interaction since she could write about girl things her old best friend would never understand.

She wrote about what Earnest said to her and about his attempts to grope her. She wrote about her fear that he would expose those pictures anyway and she would have a reputation unfit for med school applications. She also wrote about how much she missed having guy friends she didn't have to be on edge around.

Beatrice sighed and put away her diary for the afternoon. She had to work on her chemistry homework. She hadn't done it earlier because she was so into writing in her diary. After an hour's work she was finished and admiring how good of a job she did.

Suddenly a hand came out and snatched her notes from her desk. Beatrice whipped her head around to see Mandy Wiles holding her notes. She panicked, trying to argue her way into getting her notes back but the head cheerleader wasn't buying it.

Maybe if she offered to tutor her? When she had told the nerds to not tutor Mandy, she had done so before Earnest had blackmailed her. At the time she was angry she had been refused the only escape she could think of from the nerds—but now she was glad she didn't give Mandy the chance to be put in a situation where she would around guys who would use her.

After Mandy left, Beatrice felt like breaking down. As if she didn't have enough trouble with getting into medical school, now academics were a problem. She needed those notes!

A boy appeared in her doorway. She recognized him as the new student, Jimmy Hopkins. He had a bad reputation, but she knew he helped people. She had several classes with him. He seemed pretty smart—when he actually attended class. Chemistry seemed to be one class he excelled at, so she thought maybe she could appeal to his better nature in order to get back her notes.

She explained the situation to him and tried to convince him to get her lab notes for her. He was hesitant to take on the task of stealing her notes out of the girls' locker room. She started to feel like she was losing the battle of retrieving her work, so she let herself lose control of her emotions and rambled without thinking.

Beatrice declared that she would tell everyone he was a sick pervert who snuck into the dorm to spy on the girls. She knew immediately after the words came out of her mouth that that was the wrong thing to say, but Mrs. Peabody wouldn't be upstairs forever so she had a short amount of time to make a deal with Jimmy.

He relented and agreed to do it. She still felt bad for saying something so mean to a guy she barely even knew so she offered to kiss him if he got her notes back for her. The look he gave her made it obvious he would have done it anyway.

The anticipation was too much for her so she went and waited outside of the dorm for him. Her mind came up with all sorts of terrible scenarios as to what could happen if Jimmy wasn't successful.

Maybe he was taking so long because he got caught by a prefect and was on his way to Dr. Crabblesnitch to be expelled. Maybe the notes weren't in Mandy's locker, like she had thought, and so he was hunting for then. Maybe he just decided her notes weren't worth the trouble and he had gone off to do something else.

Every worry went away when he climbed through the open part of the fence, waving her notes. She hugged them to her chest and thanked him. Just as she had promised, she gave him a kiss. It was nice. To be honest, it was her first kiss and it meant a lot to her. She smiled when he pulled away and watched him as he ran off.

Jimmy reminded her of Bucky's character in Grotto &amp; Gremlins because he was like her knight in shining armor. He came to her rescue and successfully got back her notes, thus saving her grades. Yes, he was definitely the man of her dreams. If he could triumphantly thwart the plans of the head cheerleader, maybe he could save her from Earnest.

Bucky had finally plucked up the courage to talk to Beatrice and was heading to her dorm with his English homework in his hands. She didn't even notice that he wasn't failing class recently, so when he did it this time on purpose, he knew she wouldn't get suspicious.

He rounded the corner to get to the back of the building. He knew where her room was on the first floor so he hoped that he could knock on her window and get her attention. The curtains were drawn back to let in the sunshine, so he had a good chance of getting to see her before she saw him. He climbed up the brick and looked through the window only to see that she wasn't in her room. He frowned and climbed back down. Where could she be?

Bucky continued to walk down the back of the building. He heard the sounds of two people talking, so he stopped before he could be seen. Turned to look around the corner, wondering who they were when he saw Beatrice's lips on Jimmy Hopkins's. Bucky was frozen in shock at the sight of them. They didn't notice him and after they pulled away, Jimmy left without noticing him.

Beatrice seemed to be in her own world of happiness as clutched her notes to her chest and smiled. She turned to head back inside when she finally noticed Bucky. Her hand fell away from the door.

"Bucky, what are you doing here?" she asked.

Bucky lifted his English homework. "I was hoping to get some help on this."

Beatrice hesitated; Bucky knew he was losing her so he continued on. "Beatrice, I miss you. I don't know what I did to cause you to not want to be my friend anymore, but I am so sorry. I will do anything to get our friendship back."

She looked down at the ground and bit her lip; then she looked up and sniffed. Damnit, now her best friend thought she hated him. He never tried to put moves on her like Earnest had, and now she felt bad for putting him in the same category as the rest of the nerds. "Bucky, it's not you."

He looked surprised. "Did one of the guys say something to you? I swear, if they did something—."

"No," Beatrice cut him off quickly. "Listen, I just need some time to myself."

Bucky snorted. "And that's the exact reason why you were lip-locking with Hopkins a few seconds ago."

Beatrice clutched the papers closer to herself. "Mandy came in and stole my lab notes earlier. Jimmy saw it and went to get them back for me. I was really mean to him before he helped me, so I felt like I had to do something to make up for it."

Bucky wasn't convinced. "Beatrice, if you like him, I'm happy for you. But don't just leave the rest of us behind."

Beatrice nodded, but didn't seem to want to listen to him. "I'm not. I've just been going through some things lately, so I haven't been able to be around."

Bucky accepted defeat that he would not be able to get her to talk about what was going on, so he decided to change the topic. "Are you too busy to help me with English?"

She stepped away from him. "Bucky, you're my best friend. You always have been and you always will be, but for right now I need space."

With that said, Beatrice went inside and left him by himself.

Bucky walked back to the boys' dorm and locked the door of his room to keep out his roommate, Thad. He tossed his English homework on his desk and sat down on his bed.

So that was it, Beatrice hadn't been avoiding him; she had been too busy making out with Jimmy Hopkins to remember him. He felt jealousy fill him at the thought of another guy being with the girl he had a crush on for so long. But almost immediately that feeling was replaced with what he really thought of when it came to Beatrice: despair.

If she had decided to date another guy who treated her well, Bucky probably wouldn't have as much trouble with it. But Hopkins, on the other hand, had just made out with Angie Ng this afternoon. He had no doubt Beatrice's feelings were one-sided—there was no way that guy was going to be faithful to her—but he couldn't stand the thought of her being hurt.

Hopkins was the kind of guy who would capture a girl's heart by telling her loved her and would use the love-sick girl as far as he could; then he would dump her for something greater and leave her heartbroken.

Bucky was also well-aware that if he did anything to intervene, Beatrice would hate him for the rest of their lives. But he couldn't just watch and let her get hurt.

A knock on the door stirred him out of his musings. "Bucky, open the door." Bucky sighed. The last person he wanted to see was the leader of his clique. He knew he had no choice but to open the door, if his boss wanted him to do something, he had to do it.

Earnest came in looking rather annoyed and shut the door behind him. "Do you know what's been going on with Beatrice? I haven't seen her in a while and I have been unsuccessful at locating her. "

Bucky scowled, Earnest always unknowingly managed to rub salt in his wounds when it came to Beatrice. "Yeah, she's been with Hopkins."

Earnest's eyes narrowed. "Come again?"

"She's been making out with Jimmy Hopkins. I asked her about it and she said he was just getting his lab notes for her and she just did it as a 'thank you'."

The nerd leader hummed and started to pace around the room before he turned his attention back to Bucky. "Did you try to convince her break up with him?"

Bucky sighed. "No."

"Good."

Bucky looked up at Earnest in surprise. "Think about it. Hopkins is clearly going places, and having someone in our group he thinks of positively could work in our favor. She might even turn into a kind of intelligent Lola."

Anger filled Bucky as he stood up. "Are you calling my best friend a slut?"

Earnest moved close to Bucky. "Not yet, but with time perhaps."

The nerd leader headed over to the door to leave. "Oh Bucky, don't be so sensitive. Don't worry, I'll help you toughen up."

With that said, Earnest left shutting the door behind him.

Bucky was seething with rage. What is up with all of these guys trying to use his best friend? He couldn't help but feel angry with her as well for letting it happen with no complaint. Damnit. Eventually he calmed down and was left with one conclusion: He had to protect Beatrice, no matter what the cost.


	3. Chapter 3: Defend Bucky and The Diary

**Chapter 3**

A few weeks after his last encounter with Beatrice, Bucky was heading to the Auto Shop to get parts for his science project. He made sure to tell the other nerds where he was going, just in case he got into trouble and didn't come back within a few hours.

Even though the Auto Shop was in greaser territory, he never had a problem with them. To be honest, if he wasn't such a nerd he probably would have been a greaser seeing as they shared a mutual passion for mechanics. Bucky was the only nerd the greasers were on good terms with and as long as he told them what he was taking, he was allowed to take anything he wanted from tools to parts. In return, if the greasers ever had a problem with welding or parts not working, he would help them fix it.

It definitely wasn't the greasers he was worried about. It was fact that he had to go through bully territory. Normally he'd get to the Auto Shop through the side that opened at the fountain, but lately the greasers had been locking up the entrances when they weren't around due to their concerns about recent bike thefts from the preppies.

Today he had to go through the parking lot—right through the bullies—in order to reach the gate that the greasers told him they would leave unlocked. Bucky kicked off on his skateboard; not normally something he used but he hoped it would help be a quick escape from the bullies. He listened to any sound of them, but didn't hear anything. When he got to the parking lot it was deserted so he presumed they must be in front of the boys' dorm instead.

Bucky unlocked the gates and went inside, thinking he had gone through the worst of it. He propped his skateboard on the wall and walked around to the garage he needed to get parts from. Just when he got to the door he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps and whispered muttering.

He tried to open the garage door so he could hide, but he just didn't have the strength to lift it. He turned to see two of the bullies coming his way so he ran around them and tried to get out but they chased him. They caught up with him and tackled him. He squirmed out from under one of them and tried to run but he staggered back as one of them punched him in the stomach.

He tried to stand up straight again, but fell over as a punch was landed to his face. Suddenly the bullies were yelling at something and he could hear their feet running away from him. He shakily stood up to see Jimmy taking on the two guys at once. Bucky watched in awe how skillfully the other teen took out his aggressors then when he took them down he took on two more.

Jimmy led the way to the garage and raised the door without much trouble. "Algie said you came out here and was worried you were in trouble."

Bucky knew the bullies would be back soon so he quickly ran in and grabbed the parts he needed. He came back out and smiled toothily at Jimmy. "That's great, Jimmy." Sure enough his prediction had been correct and more of the bullies had come to pick a fight with them. Jimmy flattened them with no problems.

Jimmy tried to yank the gates that separated them from the parking lot, but apparently the bullies had locked it from the outside. The homeless guy who lives behind the old bus opened the doors then stalked off leaving the two teens alone. Jimmy joked about the man then turned to Bucky with a light-hearted smile.

It was then that Bucky understood what Beatrice saw in Jimmy and knew he was a good guy. He felt like he should give Jimmy something for defending him. He knew Algie probably paid him, but he felt like he had a debt of gratitude he needed to pay. He looked around and saw his skateboard that was still leaning against the wall. Aw heck, why not?

Bucky presented the skateboard to Jimmy, who took it with much interest. He was embarrassed how old it was, but the other boy didn't seem to mind it at all. He left, knowing the other nerds were probably anxious for his return.

The next day Beatrice was sitting in the English classroom writing in her diary. She had taken to writing in it more often than just in her dorm room since her last encounter with Jimmy. Nothing new had happened, but she just couldn't stop thinking about him and just had to express her infatuation for the boy. She knew it wasn't smart to bring such a personal item into a public setting, but she just couldn't stop herself.

She jumped when the door opened, but was relieved when she saw who it was. "Hey, pally." She never could stop herself from smiling when she heard that phrase. She was trying to distance herself from him, but when he approached her with that toothy grin she gave in. "Hi, Bucky. How are you?"

Bucky pulled out binder paper and a pen. "Good, good. I miss your company, of course, but all in all things are good." 

Beatrice's smile faded. "Bucky…"

Bucky waved her off. "No, it's okay. It's taken me a while to get used to, but I want you to know that I don't mind your relationship with Jimmy. I got to talk to him last night and he's a pretty cool guy."

For some odd reason Beatrice didn't realize until just then how much she wanted Bucky's approval. She kind of felt like she had betrayed him after she had left him outside her dormitory because of how sad he seemed to be, but he wasn't upset now so she felt better about her crush on Jimmy.

"How did you guys meet?" Beatrice asked, greatly interested to hear how her best friend and her crush met for a conversation.

"I was getting parts for my science project—."

"The bottle rocket launcher?" Beatrice interrupted.

"Yeah, that one. Anyway, I was going to the Auto Shop to get parts and I got surrounded by bullies. I told the guys before I left where I would be going and when I didn't come back quickly enough, they asked Jimmy to find me. He took out those guys without breaking a sweat. He even lifted the garage door for me."

Beatrice beamed. "That is so sweet of him! Wait," she frowned, thinking. "I think I saw him riding around on your skateboard this morning, did you give it to him?"

Bucky nodded. "Yeah, I gave it to him as a 'thank you'. I was worried he wouldn't like it because it's so old, but I'm glad to hear he's using it."

"Jimmy appreciates it when people give him gifts. It's not like he's different from everyone else but…"

As Beatrice launched into a rant about how wonderful Jimmy is, Bucky felt himself tune her out. He was glad that his best friend was happy, but he realized she wasn't smiling so brightly because of him. His mood plummeted when he realized what a terrible friend he must be since he never made her this happy.

"…and he's so kind! And—Bucky, are you okay?" Beatrice cut herself off mid-rant when she noticed how miserable Bucky looked.

His head jerked up. "Yeah, yeah don't worry about me."

Bucky turned away from her when Mr. Galloway and various students poured in. Beatrice was disappointed to see that Jimmy was not one of them.

That night was the first time in a long time Beatrice's thoughts were not on Jimmy. She was worried about Bucky. He was so happy when he came in, but something must have happened for his mood to have dropped so quickly. She thought back on everything he said right before his expression changed, but she couldn't think of anything that would have that affect on him.

Beatrice was sitting in Math class a few days later, still thinking about Jimmy and Bucky. Mr. Hattrick was going on and on about equations she already knew, so she decided to pull out her diary. She had written two pages before the diary was snatched off her desk. She paled as she saw Mr. Hattrick holding it.

"Writing in your diary in class, Miss Trudeau? I am very disappointed in you. This should teach you to pay attention in my class."

Beatrice felt an anxiety attack coming on as Mr. Hattrick locked her diary in his desk. He sneered at her before turning back to teach. Usually when someone at Bullworth gets in trouble, their peers laugh at them. When Mr. Hattrick yells at someone, everyone is on edge because he has a tendency to yell at people who aren't even involved in whatever troublemaking is going on.

For the rest of the class Beatrice tried to push down that icy feeling one gets when they know they are in big trouble.

After the bell that signaled the end of class rang, Beatrice ran up to Mr. Hattrick's desk. She tried to rehearse in her head what she could say to get out of her situation, but she knew better. Mr. Hattrick did not yield to anyone.

The obese teacher leaned back in his chair. "Miss Trudeau, would you care to explain to me why you felt it was appropriate to not only bring such a personal item to my class but to use it?"

Beatrice tried to steel her nerves. "Mr. Hattrick, I'm really sorry. I was worried about a friend of mine and I couldn't concentrate on the lesson—actually I haven't been able to concentrate in any of my classes lately because of this. I won't do it again!"

She knew better than to try to get sympathy from the most heartless man on campus. "Miss Trudeau, personal problems are none of my concern and should be left outside of my class. I'm here to teach math, not to deal with mundane problems teenagers have."

"But I—."

Mr. Hattrick put up a hand to stop her from defending herself. "I don't care what you have to say. You know the rules very well, and while this is the first time I have seen you break one, this conduct is simple quite unacceptable. No, I'm going to lock your diary in my desk tonight and tomorrow I am going to present it to Dr. Crabblesnitch to determine what the best disciplinary action should be."

"But, Mr. Hattrick—!"

"You are dismissed!" He barked.

Shakily, Beatrice gathered up her schoolwork and left the room. By the time she got to the girls' dormitory, she was ready to collapse. She went up the side entrance and let out a small scream of frustration when she found out the door was locked.

Beatrice walked back down the stairs and was about to go through the front entrance when she remembered that her diary was not just about Jimmy and Bucky. It also contained her secret about Earnest. She dropped her school supplies on the ground and leaned against the railing. She started to cry as she realized how much trouble she would get in if Dr. Crabblesnitch saw her diary. And to top off a miserable day, she just realized her cold sores were coming back.

"Hey Beatrice, what's wrong?"

Beatrice looked up to see Jimmy approaching her. She immediately felt herself calm down. Jimmy would know what to do. She tried to not be so mean this time around and even though he was clearly disgusted by her confession of love for him…and her cold sores; he still went off to retrieve her diary.

Soon enough he came back with her diary just like he had with her lab notes. Jimmy said he didn't read her diary, and by the way he wasn't looking at her with contempt she knew he had at least not read about Earnest. She kissed him in gratitude.

After Jimmy left, Beatrice breathed out in relief. She had dodged her secret being revealed for another day. She bent down to pick up the school supplies she had dropped earlier when she heard footsteps approach her.

She looked up to see Earnest standing in front of her with an emotionless expression on his face. "Hello Beatrice, long time no see."


	4. Chapter 4: Character Sheets

**Chapter 4**

It had been a few weeks since Earnest had _suggested_ that Beatrice should spend more time around her fellow clique members. The nerd girl could be seen hanging out with fellow geeks on Halloween and between classes, like she always did before the start of term, but it wasn't a voluntary choice like it had been before.

Beatrice was careful to stick to large groups outside of buildings, instead of in confined spaces with one or two boys. No one had openly tried to do anything to her, but at the back of her mind was a fear of what they _could_ do to her if they had the chance.

The only good thing that had come out of this arrangement was that Bucky was happy to have her around again, and Beatrice almost felt like he was watching out for her. Algie tried to get her to go to the back of the library with him to look for a medical book her wanted for their biology exam, but thankfully Bucky decided to join them and talked in a loud voice that attracted the attention of the librarian, who watched them carefully. Thad used his yardstick to mock hit her one night as they were leaving the library, and Bucky came out of nowhere and yanked the offending object out of the red head's hand. More than once, Donald attempted to put a hand on her knee when he would sit by her in a bench in the library, but every time he tried, Bucky came shoved his way between the two.

Beatrice wasn't sure if she was paranoid in thinking that there was something going on in their clique besides what Earnest did to her, but by the way Bucky and the other boys acted, she had a feeling there was. Nowadays, there was almost a split between the clique between Bucky and Beatrice, versus the rest of the clique. To anyone on the outside, it wouldn't be obvious, but to Earnest, this was unacceptable.

One night when Beatrice was walking back to her dorm, she saw Earnest waiting for her. It wasn't a surprise anymore when he showed up to "talk" to her alone, but the dread never left her. She figured it was better to just finish things before one of the girls or prefects saw her and thought of the situation as something entirely different than what it actually was. She approached him, but made sure there was a good few feet of difference between them.

Earnest knew what Beatrice was attempting to do, and before she could blink, he had her pinned to the wall by her neck. The impact winded her and the back of her head hurt where it had hit the brick wall behind her. He groped her under her dress with his free hand and sloppily kissed her neck. She was momentarily shocked and was frozen where she stood. But before she could react, he had already pulled away and smirked at her stunned expression, before pressing his lips to hers and groping her chest. Beatrice tried to push him away, but the harder she tried to fight, the harder he gripped her neck.

He pulled away again and trailed kisses up her neck until he reached her ear. As he sighed and moved his arms to hug her in a way that would restrict the movement of her arms, he licked her earlobe.

"Oh Beatrice, why do you always insist on fighting with me? Why can't you just enjoy what I'm doing for you?" Earnest sighed into her ear.

"Please get off of me," Beatrice whispered in a shaky voice, knowing that nothing would change the nerd boy's mind.

Earnest pulled his face back a bit to look at her face that had an expression of fear and sorrow on it. He kissed her lips far more gently than he ever had before. "Why are you so afraid of me? I'm just having a teenage fling with a fellow intellectual. There's nothing to fear, am I right?"

Beatrice looked at his face defiantly, as tears fell down her face. "You're a monster, bent on sexually assaulting the only female in Bullworth who doesn't have a gang of tough guys ready to kick your ass." She paused to look him straight in the eye. "Or a girl who has a body close enough to the one you want to rape. Can't go for the little girls because they don't have the features you want, adult women make you nervous, and Eunice is out because her weight disgusts you. As for me, to you Mandy and I have enough physically in common for you to feel like you can close your eyes and imagine she's the one you're groping instead of me. But unlike the real Mandy, there are no consequences for what you do to me, and so it's the only way you can act out your sick fantasies without having to be held accountable for the consequences for your actions."

Earnest backed away from her and let go, making Beatrice wonder if she had finally said something to affect him. She should have known better. As soon as she felt air fill lungs, it left just as quickly as Earnest downed her with a punch to the ribs. It's not like he knew how to throw a proper punch or was strong enough to do so, but the force on her already weak frame brought her to the ground. He seemed surprised at his own strength and just stood watching her take deep breaths.

They could both hear a prefect approaching, so Earnest backed away from her. "Stop causing conflict, or I will do much worse next time." I with that he scrambled over the broken fence and headed to the boys' dormitory.

Beatrice waited in the shadows until the prefect left, and then ventured into the girls' dormitory. She carefully avoided anyone as she sunk down in her desk chair. She put her head in her hands and wondered how much longer she could do this. It wasn't even halfway through the year, let alone being close to the end of her time at Bullworth Academy. Who knows how far Earnest would go with trying to break her, and she wouldn't always be lucky enough for someone to catch the nerd boys before they did something to her.

She jumped when her door closed. She looked up to see Mandy standing in front of her with her hands on her hips and an emotionless expression on her face.

"Um, I don't have your chemistry homework done yet. I need a bit more time. I'll get it to you before you have class tomorrow," Beatrice pleaded.

Mandy locked the door and moved closer to Beatrice. She examined her face for something the bespectacled girl couldn't figure out. "Why do you let him do that to you?" Mandy finally asked tiredly.

She looked up at the cheerleader in surprise. "W-what do you mean?"

Mandy frowned, looking at her. "I saw you and that geek boy together. I saw the whole thing. I watched him hit you, I heard you telling him to get off of you. I saw him choking you. Why did you just let it happen? Why didn't you fight back? You clearly don't like it, so why do you tolerate it?"

Beatrice shrunk away from the other girl and wrapped her arms around herself as she looked at the floor. "You don't understand, I don't want it to happen, but I have to deal with it. Otherwise, I'll risk not going to medical school."

Mandy straightened up and frowned down at her. "You're right, I don't understand. I don't understand why you feel the need to let some creep feel you up, because otherwise you won't go to college. I don't understand why you put up with it. You've got the highest GPA in the school, not even the other nerds are as high as you, and yet you let them treat you like shit. What is the point in allowing what they do to you?"

The blonde girl just held herself tighter. "Mandy, please just forget what you saw tonight. Don't tell anyone what happened. Don't try to interfere. It's something I have to deal with alone."

The cheerleader sighed and walked to the door. "I won't tell anyone, but I definitely won't forget. I've had my own share of creepy guys who think women are nothing more than fuck toys. Just promise that you won't let it go too far, okay?"

Mandy left before Beatrice could respond. When she heard the girl walk away, Beatrice tiredly put her glasses down on her desk and pulled out her chemistry textbook. "I can't promise you that. It's already gone too far, and I have a feeling that you know that as well."

Beatrice left class the next day, still wondering why Mandy would bother to be concerned about her. When she got to the library, she was knocked over by Tom and Wade. She heard the sound of bottle rockets launchers cocking and jumped out of the way before she was hit by one. Bucky ran over to her and helped her up. "Sorry about that, I'm still working on improving their accuracy."

Beatrice brushed off her skirt and picked up her textbooks. "What was that all about?" Thad came up behind her with a broken yardstick and anger in his eyes. "Those brutes! I'm gonna kill them!" Algie, Fatty, and Donald ran after him and Bucky sighed as he turned back to her. "The bullies stole our Grottos &amp; Gremlins character sheets."

"Oh, sorry to hear that." Beatrice turned to leave when Melvin approached her and Bucky. The overweight nerd was angry and the female nerd did not like the look in his eyes. She took a step back so that she was behind her best friend.

"What are we gonna do Melvin? I say we get Jimmy to get the sheets back." It appeared that Bucky noticed the way the bigger nerd was looking at Beatrice because he moved to stand in front of her.

Melvin seemed peeved by what his friend was doing and attempted to look past him. "Yes, I think that's a noble plan, fair Buck. Thou must go after them, while I protect the fair maiden in case those brutes come back."

Bucky narrowed his eyes. "If you really think she should be getting involved, then why don't you send her off to follow Thad and the others? None of them had a weapon on them and I know that if they ended up in greaser territory, they won't even try to hit her because greasers aren't cool with hitting girls."

Melvin fumed and stopped Cornelius before he left the nerd courtyard. "Take the fair maiden with you, she could thy shield."

Cornelius gave Melvin a look, as he didn't like the idea of dragging a girl along with him, but handed her a stink bomb and steered her away from the two nerds who were still glaring at each other.

"I'm going to tell you this once and only once: keep your hands off of Beatrice. Don't give me that crap about how she's your friend and she's cool with being pawed," Bucky snarled at the other nerd.

Melvin seemed unperturbed by Bucky's threat, and dropped the medieval colloquial speech he always added like how the preps add their fake English accents. "She's not your girlfriend. As far as I see it, she's the clique's commodity to use for gain. So why don't you go run along and go grab those character sheets."

Bucky was tempted to shoot Melvin with his bottle rocket launcher, but decided to save revenge for later. "Remember Melvin: Earnest is the leader of this group. He has no lieutenants, and if he heard you giving orders as though you were, he would probably come to the conclusion that you were trying to take his spot and would immediately kick you out of the clique to fend for yourself. If I ever hear you talk about Beatrice like that again, I will tell him that you are plotting against him and you will have to deal with the consequences."

With that Bucky ran off to confront the bullies and left Melvin fuming. They both knew how paranoid Earnest was about his seat in power, and the slightest suggestion that he might be dethroned would send him into a frenzy. At least, that was what Bucky hoped would happen.

His search for the missing character sheets led him to the boys' dorm where he saw Troy waiting for him. Bucky aimed for the bully, but to his annoyance, he was out of ammo and didn't bring any extra. He attempted to melee the bigger teen, but the bully just ripped the weapon out of his hands and tossed it onto the roof with one hand, while he raised the stolen sheets above Bucky's head with the other.

"Oh, come on!" Bucky moaned in aggravation as he tried to jump up and take the sheets from the bully's hand.

"There's no such thing as magic, dweeb!" Troy jeered at him.

Just when Bucky was about to give up, Jimmy arrived and sent the bully to the floor. As relieved as he was to have the stocky boy around, he really couldn't stomach how cruel the teen's fighting style was. Jimmy counted the sheets as he stood on top of Troy's groaning body.

"Yup, that's all of them. I'm gonna go take these back to Melvin."

"Wait," Bucky stopped the other teen. "Did you see Beatrice, is she okay? Melvin wanted her to fight the bullies with the other guys and I'm worried about her."

Jimmy frowned. "Yeah, she's fine—they didn't even try to lay a hand on her. But why would Melvin want Beatrice to confront the bullies? I thought it was standard etiquette around here that you don't go dragging girls into clique fights?"

Bucky sighed. "Listen, Jimmy, please don't tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you." Jimmy led the nerd boy away from the defeated bully to talk. "There's something going on with the nerds. Something big. I don't know what's going on, but it seems like they're setting out to hurt Beatrice."

Jimmy's face turned serious. "What do you mean by 'hurt'?"

Bucky wrung his hands together. "I don't know if I'm seeing things, but they act like they're trying to feel her up or physically harm her. They've never done that before this year and Beatrice just takes it. I think Earnest is in charge of what's going on, but I think there's more to it than that. Earnest has always been a creep, but this is out of character, even for him."

Jimmy nodded at what Bucky was telling him. "Okay, I'll keep an eye on it. I know you're trying to help her out as well, but if it's something like sexual assault, Bucky, you need to tell the police. Obviously you don't have any concrete evidence right now, but seriously, if you find out they're doing something awful to her and you have proof, you better take it to the police."

Bucky looked up at Jimmy in surprise. "W-why should I do that? That seems to be a bit extreme."

Jimmy shook his head. "Bucky, if you don't do it, no one will. And I know that she wouldn't do anything about it either. So you've got to be the one to watch out for her, got it?"

Bucky nodded numbly and Jimmy walked away as the nerd boy had to rethink his relationship with the other nerds.

Soon after his conversation with Jimmy, the other teen managed to get control of the bully clique. It appeared that the tough boy was going for the preps next, and he was very interested to see how far Jimmy would go. Sure enough, he managed to beat them as well and Bucky was left in awe of the other teenager.

He wasn't the only one. Rumor had it that he had taken Pinky Gauthier on a date to the carnival, but she had ended up as his side fling; as per Jimmy's custom. As the girls of Bullworth were becoming enamored of the boy and clique leaders were nervous about his rise to power, Beatrice still thought he was the most wonderful guy around.

Beatrice didn't understand why, but sometimes Jimmy checked up on her often. She enjoyed every time she gave him flowers and kissed her, because he was the only person who made her feel safe.

On Christmas Eve, she walked down to the Dragon's Wing comic book store in Bullworth Town, dreading have to the basement of the store. It was yet another nerd hangout, but Beatrice was on edge with being around so many guys with no chance of anyone outside of their clique possibly intervening if something bad happened. But when she opened the door, she was surprised to see Jimmy playing Consumo with Bucky, Fatty, and Algie watching on eagerly.

The machine was noisy, but not nearly as much as the guys surrounding it. Then after a moment of silence they all screamed. Beatrice watched as Algie and Fatty's faces were contorted into pure rage, while Jimmy remained calm and Bucky grinned at the other teen gleefully. Beatrice watched as he gave the larger teen his bottle rocket launcher.

Jimmy turned around and waved the weapon at Beatrice as a greeting. "'Sup!" Beatrice smiled and shook her head. "You beat Fatty's high score?" Jimmy smirked. "Yup, and now I also own this place as a new hangout." She felt her heart soar, as she knew this meant that he was on his way to conquering the nerds next.

Even as Algie and Fatty grumbled in the background, Beatrice had a happy Christmas Eve thanks to Jimmy. She knew that eventually Earnest would find out about his hangout being lot to someone he thought was too stupid to get into college, and he would take it out on her later. But for right now, she was felt safe and that's what mattered to her that night.


End file.
